Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » Vegetable Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #318126
Title: Early-season flood enhances native biological control agents in Wisconsin cranberry

Author
item VAN ZOEREN, JANET - University Of Wisconsin
item Steffan, Shawn

Submitted to: Entomology Society America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/12/2015
Publication Date: 11/15/2015
Citation: Van Zoeren, J., Steffan, S. 2015. Early-season flood enhances native biological control agents in Wisconsin cranberry [abstract]. Entomology Society America Annual Meeting. Paper No. 0862.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Biological control is predicated on the concept that crop plants are protected when predators suppress herbivore populations. However, many factors, including concurrent crop protection strategies, may modify the effectiveness of a predator in a given agroecosystem. In Wisconsin commercial cranberry production, native biological control agents experience either an early spring pest-control flood, or a spring pesticide application. Is it possible that the pest control efficacy exhibited by the flood is in part due to releasing natural enemies, such as spiders and parasitoids, from a broad-spectrum insecticide application? To determine the potential compatibility between native biological control and cultural and chemical control methods, pest pressure was analyzed on cranberry marshes receiving either a spring flood or an insecticide treatment, and predation and parasitism of a key cranberry pest was compared between the two treatments.